7 Surprising Scientific Advances that Came out of World War I

When we hear about the scientific advances that came out of World War I, which started 100 years ago today, we tend to hear about new weaponry such as tanks, poison gas, and flamethrowers. But the Great War spawned new advances in other areas of science that may be less obvious but have had more impact on our everyday lives.David Hambling is the author of Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World.

Synthetic Rubber

Synthetic Rubber

World War I is the first war in which motor vehicles played a major role. Ford, for example, delivered some 390,000 trucks to the U.S. Army in 1917. But trucks cannot move without tires, and beginning in 1914 a blockade by the Allies cut off Germany’s supply of natural rubber from Southeast Asia.

The German chemical industry rose to the challenge. Bayer’s pharmaceutical division had been experimenting with alternatives since 1910, and the outbreak of war prompted the company to start up large-scale production of methyl rubber—Bayer’s chemists worked out a way of making this synthetic substitute from lime and coal.

But it was not as good as the natural product. These tires had to be made solid, and the synthetic rubber was only soft when warm; if it got cold overnight, the tires would be left with flat spots where they touched the road, making for a bumpy ride. But while it was a poor substitute, the thousands of tons of synthetic rubber produced were enough to keep the German army rolling. The effort also kick-started an industry that now supplies the bulk of the world’s rubber needs.

Blood Banks

Blood Banks

Blood transfusions had been carried out since before the war, but these were direct from donor to recipient, as there was no way of storing blood. Doctors knew about the requirement for compatibility of blood types, and wounded soldiers died because of the lack of a suitable donor. Peyton Rous, of the Rockefeller Institute in New York, looked for ways of preserving fresh blood and found that a salt solution would do the job, with the addition of sodium citrate to prevent clotting and dextrose as a source of energy.

Capt. Oswald Robertson took the new solution to the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Belgium 1917. Soldiers in camp were willing donors, and flasks of blood could be stored in a portable ice chest for up to 28 days. The stored blood was used in battlefield surgery and was credited with saving many lives. This was the first blood bank and paved the way for modern blood storage techniques.